Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop
of Esztergom-Budapestand Primate of Hungary, was born in
Budapest on 25 June 1952, the first of six children in a family of
Catholic intellectuals.

He was ordained priest on 18
June 1975 in Budapest. Between 1975-1977 he served in a parish in the
city of Dorog. He obtained a Doctorate in Theology in 1976. Between
1977-1980 he studied at the Pontifical Lateran University’s Institutum
Utriusque Iuris in Rome, at the end of which he obtained a
Doctorate in Canon Law (1980).

Between 1980-1986 he was
professor of theology in Esztergom. From 1986 to 1988 he was a
lecturer and from 1988-2002 visiting professor at the Pontifical
Gregorian University. From 1988 to 2002 he was professor of Canon Law
and from 1988 to 2003 Rector of the Péter Pázmány Catholic
University. From 1996 to 2003 he was also Dean of the post-graduate
Canon Law Institute. During his rectorship, the Péter Pázmány
University gained pontifical status and opened a new Faculty of
Information Technology.

On 5 November 1999 was
nominated by John Paul II titular Bishop of Puppi and Auxiliary of
Székesfehérvár, receiving episcopal ordination on 6 January 2000.

On 7 December 2012, Pope John
Paul II transferred him to the Metropolitan See of Esztergom-Budapest,
appointing him Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, and Primate of
Hungary. He was created Cardinal on 21 October 2003.

In 2005 he was elected
President of the Hungarian Bishops’ Conference, and was re-elected
in 2010 for another five-year mandate. In 2006 he became President of
the Council of European Episcopal Conferences, and was re-elected in
2011.

He participated in the city
missions in the great European cities (Vienna, Paris, Lisbon, Brussels
and Budapest). He was one of the initiators and one of the two
co-presidents of the Catholic-Orthodox European Forum.

Since 2003 he has
participated in all the assemblies of the Synod of Bishops, including
those devoted to Africa (2009) and the Middle East (2010).

His prodigious systematic
reading has led to the publication of more than 250 articles and 25
books in the fields of Canon Law and the medieval history of Canon Law.
He has also published a number of cultural and spiritual works.

He has received a number of
awards and honours: an honorary doctorate from the Institut
Catholique de Paris (1996), from the Babes-Bolyai
University in Cluj Napoca (2001), from the Catholic University of
Lublin (2004), from the University of Munich (2007), Constanza (2008),
from the Stepan Wyszyiński University in Warsaw (2011) and
from the University of Navarra (2011). He has also received the
Galileo Galilei prize (Pisa, 1999).

On 14 October 2014 he was nominated General Relator of the
third Extraordinary General Assemby of
the Synod of Bishops (5-19 October 2014), on the theme: Pastoral Challenges
to the Family in the Context of Evangelization.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by the Bl.
John Paul II in the consistory of
21 October 2003, of the Title of S. Balbina (St. Balbina).

Member of:

Secretariat of State (second section);

Congregations: for Catholic Education; for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of Sacraments;

Pontifical Councils: for Legislative Texts;
for Culture;

Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura;

XIII Ordinary Council of the Secretariat
General of the Synod of Bishops.